The Sims 3 Hands-On

We take advantage of the newly added karma powers in The Sims 3 for consoles.

The Sims have made it to consoles before but not without reducing features that just wouldn't fit and sacrificing some of what makes the PC version so special. With the success of The Sims 3, it's not surprising that the Sims Studio is bringing the game over to next-generation consoles so that a wider audience can experience the joy of starting a sim family from scratch. We had an opportunity to see The Sims 3 for the Xbox 360 at the EA studio showcase in Redwood Shores, but this time, we played the PlayStation 3 version to get an idea of how the controls would feel. It's definitely not going to be as easy or as intuitive as a mouse, but everything of importance is mapped to one of the many buttons on a controller. So as long as you have those down, it should be relatively painless to navigate.

Karma powers at work.

We didn't have a lot of time to spend with the game, but we did get to create a brand new sim to see how the editor transferred over. Like the PC version, we were able to pick a sim from various age groups, so we decided to go with a toddler and mess around with some onesies and face paint. Every detail can be tweaked, from eyebrows to beanie patterns, and everything you make, including houses, other sims, and patterns can be saved and uploaded to MyStudio. MyStudio is accessible via the main menu and lets you share what you've created with the community.

We were told that all the PC features have been moved to the console, with the exception of the ability to be able to customize everything you come across in a neighborhood, and there are loading times when you move from one location to another. Because we couldn't start the game with a toddler without a parent, we picked a random sim and jumped right into the game. As soon as you're placed in a home, you're given a seven-step tutorial that teaches you the basic controls. The L stick controls a green beam of light that acts as your cursor where you can highlight your sim and other objects of interest. The X button brings up all the options available for the highlighted item, and you can always reset your camera to your active sim with L3 or use R3 to center on your cursor. When you're in a building with a second floor, the L2 button lets you see what's happening upstairs. At first, it does feel a bit unwieldy when you're so used to pointing and clicking, but everything of importance is easily accessible. The R2 button will display a message log if you need to refer back to something the game is trying to tell you, and the square button gives you all the details you want to know about your sim.

To jump from one location to the next or access the newly added features, the select button will bring up a menu of things to do. Karma powers and the challenge system have been placed here, where you can build up karma points to use special powers on yourself or on other sims. The challenge and reward system is similar to achievements, where you'll have a list of 300 things you can complete throughout the game to earn points, which can then be used for shopping.

Build your own luxurious beach house and throw a party!

As we mentioned in our earlier preview, karma powers provide a way for you to change the story instantly. There are eight good powers and five mischievous ones. They include things like being able to raise a dead family member, causing an earthquake, and cursing a sim for a limited time. These powers do take points, so you can't continue using the power to magically clean everything, but when you do have the points to spend, they will yield amusing results. For example, we caused a minor earthquake while we were at the beach--just to see the reaction of the neighboring sims. To further torture them a little, we used the karma power epic fail on a young boy and watched how things panned out. When a sim is cursed with epic fail, everything he or she does will come with negative results. It didn't matter whom he talked to, but those negative relationship points just kept dropping with whomever he interacted. There are other devious ways to mess with your neighborhood sims, but we eventually ran out of time.

If for whatever reason you couldn't play The Sims 3 on the PC, you will find that there is much to do in The Sims 3 for consoles. The controls do take some getting used to, which is the downside to having two analog sticks, but the features have been carried over and some new additions have been made, making it worth a look if you've been itching to check out the game. The Sims 3 will be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and DS on October 26.

ive never played a sims game on a pc ive allways got em on my ps2 and they were great games you could say ima console sims game fan lol.this game sounds amazing karma powers sounds sweet ima buy this game for sure..i hope you can have a pet in this one and the direct controle option like the ps2 version of sims 2 that would be awesome. i would also like to see a gameplay video to see what it looks like when you play it

Well sins i dont have a badass computer i will get this for X360. And i do enjoy the sims games. And it will also be cheeper playing sims 3 on consol as well. =P And i usely end up with some a-hole neighbor sim that come in eventualy just to slap my sims silly. Latly i have just paused the came, deleted he "get slapped" and selected that electrick hand shake thingy lol. It fun to watch. Now if eny neighbor sim try to slap my sim i will curse his virtual butt right in to last week. And as a final note im lookin forward to this game and think its goin to be a fresh change to the games i curently play on my X360.

@KamikazeCanuck Well let me put it this way...Ever goten angry at your sims because thay just ignore you when you tell them to do something just to spite you? Well carma powers can be used to punish your sim when he/she is being to anoying lol.

haha, this is gonna be AWESOME! I can't wait! Hopefully they make it like Sims 2 where you were able to walk around by pushing the left stick, cause I don't really like clicking on things like the PC version. They should let you pick to click things but then you can be able to just walk with the left stick also. WOOO!! [:

I think it would be pretty cool if the multiplayer consisted of players being in the same neighborhoods in seperate households with the option to interact with one another as a player would interact with a NPC as they do now. I guess it essentially would be a MMO for Sims, which I think would be pretty awesome.

@Fusco1980 Yes, every game in the world needs a GOOD multiplayer component. Why? Because it's an OPTIONAL feature that a lot of people want to use. Sure some games don't work in multiplayer at all, but that doesn't mean no one in the world would play it. And the Sims 3 is one of those games where multiplayer works.

Now that they added loading screens ALL over again I might not get it. It'll feel JUST like Bustin' out, and you're right there needs to be a demo or something...or they and just show us some gameplay already.

@bodylotion
the majority do indeed. but alot of games, such as the sims or dragon age origins don't really translate too well.
But yus, i suppose you're right. it would just be a way of avoiding the steep 500 quid graphics card upgrades for a couple of months inbetween lol.

im with gelugon_baat
but going a step further, if they brought mouse and keyboard controls to all the console games you'd see a vast amount of pc gamers crossing over.
granted you dont get the visual fidelity, but console gaming with a keyboard and mouse could be a solution when your gaming rig needs an upgrade that you cannot currently afford.

I have no problem with games going cross platform... but there are some games that are more suited to certain platforms, and The Sims is one of them. Its like most strategry games, you CAN do it on the console, but its just not going to feel quite right when you play it. Either way, I won't be playing it on the console so if others do enjoy it, good for them because it is in fact a good game.

@Fusco1980
The Sims Busting Out had split-screen multiplayer, and while I admit it wasn't a great game, and was quite dumbed down compared to the PC Sims games, it was still great fun to play with a friend.

@Fusco1980 I totally agree. Nowadays developers are forcing SP games to become multiplayer. Bioshock 2 for example, its MP didn't suck but it just isn't meant to be a MP game. The same goes for Red Dead Redemption (release some SP DLC Rockstar!!!)